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by Just Another Angry Feminist
Summary: Vera has always been the quiet member of the pack. She has always had her eye on Tom but never had the nerve to act on it. When he takes the serum from Segolia and has all the nasty effects, things happen that she never thought would. Words are said and feelings are hurt, but it's all worth it in the end.
**I've recently finished Wolfblood on Netflix and ADORED Tom's character so much! I wrote this little oneshot in about fifteen minutes and kind of love it. I hope you guys like it, too.**

 **I own nothing but Vera.**

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"So you're not the smallest bit concerned with Tom and how he's been acting?" Rhydian asked as we watched him flirt with Kay and kick a football simultaneously.

"No, if he wants to show off and be with a K, it's his choice," I replied, flipping the page in my book a little too fiercely and ripping it a bit.

"That's not the behavior of someone who's fine with everything," Jana pressed, sitting beside me on the picnic table.

"It wouldn't even matter if I did care, he's not going to change," I sighed, knowing better than to lie to wolfbloods. "He's going to do whatever he wants."

"It's not him, it's the serum," Rhydian tried, but I wasn't hearing it.

"That's total crap, he was flirting with Kay before he even took that stupid thing." I slammed my book on the table harder than necessary.

Shannon squeezed my shoulder before wrapping her arm around me and pulling me close. I laid my head against the bend of her neck and watched Tom. This wasn't supposed to be that hard, he was supposed to love me and everything would be simple. Well, simpler.

We had a rumor going around that we were secretly dating a while back, but then Kay intercepted. She locked Jana in the cafeteria and probably would've died if Shan, Tom, and I hadn't got to her. Yet he forgave her like nothing at all happened. Like the vile girl hadn't locked one of his best friends in a freezer for a laugh.

Then he took that stupid serum and started acting arrogant in a way that was totally unlike Tom. I made a promise to myself that I would ask him about it after he stopped goofing around. He launched the football into the woods and a group chased after it, leaving him alone with the Ks.

"I'm going to go try and talk to him," I sighed, pushing up from the table and putting my rucksack on my back with my book inside.

As I got closer, the Ks went into attack mode. They started spewing hateful things and Tom just smiled like it wasn't a big deal and even laughed a couple times. That should've been my first clue that this wasn't going to go over very well for me.

"Tom, can we talk for a second?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from breaking out of nervousness.

"Go for it," he replied, his arm still around Kay with all the girls' eyes on me.

Wow, he wasn't going to make this easy. "Uhm, I was wondering if we were still meeting up tonight to do revisions for English."

"Yeah, I don't want to do that anymore. I'm hanging out at the Kafé," he said, making the Ks all laugh.

"Oh."

"Yeah, I've finally found my people who see that I'm important. Have fun with Rhydian, Shannon, and Jana," he told me, a smile tugging at his lips. "They're below average just like you, but I'm not anymore."

He could've punched me in the face and it would've hurt less than that. My eyes were burning and I knew I was about to start bawling, but I couldn't seem to make myself move. Thankfully, Rhydian and Jana have super hearing and were over to me within seconds of Tom's confession with Shannon close behind.

"Real classy, mate," Rhydian snarled as Jana wrapped her arms around me and led me away from them.

We were all gathered in my living room as I bawled my eyes out against Shannon's shoulder. She held me close and Jana rubbed my side soothingly. Rhydian was pacing the length of the room muttering things that weren't appropriate for little ears or mine for that matter.

"It's that serum talking, not Tom. He would never say those things to you," Shannon reasoned, brushing my hair out of my face and rubbing my head. "I know it."

"It doesn't matter that he would never say those things because he did. He looked right at me and made me feel like I was worthless," I cried, fat tears falling from my eyes. "And in front of the Ks, which makes it even worse. I'm never going to be able to show my face at Bradlington again."

"He's an idiot who doesn't realize how amazing you are," Rhydian said, crouching in front of me and taking both my hands in his. "None of their opinions matter, you're one of the best people I've ever met and anyone that matters knows that."

"Thanks, guys. I love you," I said, happy they took the hint and wrapped me in a big group hug.

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The stupid, idiotic moron seriously thought he was going to be fine even if he was experiencing symptoms of being a wolfblood. He was still so cruel to me and all his other friends, but I couldn't just let him get hurt. Rhydian was constantly on alert, never allowing me to be anywhere near Tom or the Ks by myself.

The entire pack thought of me as a little sister, even if I was the same age as them. I was easily upset and easily forgave people who didn't always deserve it. The pack took it as their own personal mission to keep me safe and avoid letting me get hurt in any way. I was grateful for that more and more each day.

We were all at the Kafé together now, trying to get Tom to come with us to see Dr. Whitewood so she could check him out. After he took that stupid serum, his health wasn't very good and it was only declining as more time passed. Shan tried to convince him to get some kind of help, but he made her cry too by calling all of us below average. It seemed that was the only thing he was good at anymore. I should also mention that I cried when Shannon told us what he said, but I'm sure that's not much of a surprise to anyone.

Watching him dance around with Kay on that table made me want to be physically ill. I wanted to puke all over the place, mostly on Tom and Kay. Then he completely started wolfing out like Rhydian and Jana did during full moons, and we all had to get him out of there before things got even harder to explain. See what I said about him being an idiotic moron? Even if that was redundant, it was fitting.

We followed behind as he ran through the woods. Shannon, Dr. Whitewood, and I trailing behind Rhydian and Jana with our relative humanness making us slower. We arrived just in time to see Tom collapse and I went straight into autopilot. I rushed over and pulled his head onto my lap as Jana tried to wake him up to no avail.

I didn't know my heart could beat as fast as it did when we brought him back to Maddy's old place. He was breathing heavily but didn't respond to anything. The man Shannon worked with, Dr. Kincaid, came and tried to help but nothing changed. In the end, Carrie chose to use the wolfblood remedies to cure him because he was going through the same thing wolfbloods went through, kind of like the serum made him into a wolfblood or something...

After Carrie did all she possibly could, the group left Tom to get better on his own. I couldn't make myself leave him by himself, angry with him or not. I was still kind of in love with him, even if he made me feel like utter crap.

"I want to hate you, I have every right to hate you, but I can't and it's infuriating. You're so infuriating, Thomas Okanawe!" I hissed, hitting his chest with my hand. Then I took his face in my hands and rubbed my thumbs over his cheekbones. "You had no right to talk to me like you did, I'm a person and you made me feel so worthless.

"You're not below average and neither am I or the rest of the pack, but you can't treat people like you did. We're your friends, your pack, and we're trying to help you. I don't know what in that serum made you treat all your friends like trash, but I don't much like it. We're the ones that are always there for you when you need us."

I maneuvered my body to lie down beside his and rubbed the side of his neck affectionately. When he moved suddenly, I bolted to the side and fell in the floor. I groaned when my hip collided with the rough stone floor.

"Uh, I was awake the entire time. I just didn't know when an appropriate time to tell you was," he told me quietly. "I also feel bad for making you cry."

"Guys, he's awake!" I shouted, making the others rush into the room with us and Jana help me back up to my feet instead of responding to what he said. "Thanks, Jana."

Shannon whispered something to Tom before they leaned their foreheads against each other; I was grateful they were making up. Like I mentioned earlier, I forgave people all the time way too easily, but this one was different. Tom was one of my best mates and I was kind of in love with him, but that wasn't important.

After everything was better amongst the pack, we all gathered on the couch to watch a film. I was squished between Tom and Shannon, but I hadn't said a word since I'd fell into the floor earlier. I was too embarrassed and scared of what would happen to speak. What if I said something wrong and made things even weirder than they already were?

"Well, I'm starving so…" Rhydian said midways through the movie. "Jana, Shannon?"

They both jumped up so suddenly I almost fell off the couch. If Tom hadn't reached out to steady me, I probably would have hit the floor again. Once the others were gone, I moved down the couch a little ways away from Tom and saw him flinch. Served him right for making me feel so badly earlier.

"I deserved that," he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. "I am so sorry, you didn't deserve the things I said to you. Your face broke my heart, I should've never made you cry."

"No, I didn't deserve them. I was just trying to be your mate and make sure you were safe."

"I'm just tired of being in everyone else's shadow, I wanted to be someone's first choice," he told me quietly, focusing on the TV instead of me. "The serum made me feel like that."

"You were always my first choice, you always have been," I replied in a tiny voice.

It got quiet again except I felt his fingers find mine on the beat up fabric on the couch. "I'm so sorry about what I said. You're right; being with Kay never felt like being with you, I just didn't realize it before. She was fun and everything, but you're as natural as breathing. When I look at you, I feel like I'm home, Vera."

My stomach completely fell to my knees when he said that and I looked at him for the first time since he'd woken up. There was nothing but truth behind his eyes when he reached out to cup my face with the hand not holding mine.

"Tom, don't say things you don't mean to make me forgive you." My voice was so desperate it made me want to cringe, but I couldn't looked away from his face.

"I'm not lying, V. You're home," he told me, his face full of adoration and wonder in way that made my heart pound pleasantly against my ribs. "I can't believe I didn't see it before, it's so clear now."

My eyes were burning and I felt a tear leak out. "Tom, you're so stupid! I love you."

He brushed the tear away with his thumb before leaning into me. I'd never kissed a boy before, but Tom was definitely someone I wanted to kiss. He wasn't going to judge me if I sucked, or at least I hoped not.

It was innocent, he wasn't pushing me too far. Then my lips titled up into a smile and I felt his mirror it. He let go of my hand and moved it up to hold my face, too. I held his wrists as I hesitantly deepened the kiss. Before it could get too far, wolf-whistles filled the room and we pulled away slowly.

"About time!" Shannon cried with Rhydian and Jana making noises of agreement.

My face heated up, but Tom just wrapped his arms me and pulled me close. I held his waist and kissed his shoulders through his shirt. One of his hands was holding the back of my head while the other held me close.

"I love you, too," he whispered into my hair.

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 **Thanks for reading, guys!**


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